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Art Claims
What do you mean by claims? Claims is the process through which artists and authors are paired. Artists will have about a week to review summary information provided by our authors for all fics written for this round. The claims process is anonymous, which means the artists have no idea who wrote which fic. On claims day, artists submit their top 10 choices and are matched with their first available fic. When matches are confirmed, the mods will email each team to introduce partners to each other. It's a long weekend but a lot of fun! For an overview of the entire claims process, please keep reading! Preparing for claims Authors, your rough drafts must be at least 80% complete based on your projected final wordcount, with remaining scenes outlined, in order to be eligible for claims. What we want to prevent is anyone going through to art claims that isn't on track to be finished by the end of the challenge. Each draft will be checked with great enthusiasm by your loving mods! In addition to visually scanning each one, we’ll divide your current wordcount by your estimated final wordcount to make sure you meet the 80% draft requirement. What file formats will you accept? What if I didn't type my draft yet? * We will accept DOC, DOCX, and RTF file formats. You can also send us a view-only link to a Google Doc. * Submit your draft and outline as a single document. We would appreciate if you would label the document with your name so we don't accidentally confuse it with another participant. * If you are submitting via Google Docs, do not submit chapters as individual documents. Please merge them into a single file for this check-in. If your fic is lengthy and Docs is lagging, it's fine to split it into two or three parts. If we receive a folder with 20 1k chapters, we will scream. * Drafts and outlines must be typed. We will not accept photos of your notebook or your claim that a handwritten manuscript meets our requirements. Google Docs has a decent voice typing option we recommend in a pinch (but you'll have to fix formatting). Does my fic have to be beta read before claims? No. Drafts can be submitted for artist claims prior to being read by a beta, but they should represent your best effort at spelling, grammar, and storytelling. In the rare event that a draft is simply unreadable, we reserve the right to reject it. (This has happened exactly once, but please trust us, it was not an appropriate submission.) If you're at all concerned about your submission, please Contact the mods before claims start so we can assist you. How do I estimate my final wordcount? Do your best to estimate based on the number of scenes remaining and the length of other fics you may have written. Any unwritten portions in the story must be outlined before you submit the draft, which will probably help you to guess at how long it will be once it's finished. Ask yourself, if you had to assign a percentage to your draft right now, how finished it is? Do notes, outlines, and/or glossaries count toward the 20k minimum/80%? Notes, outlines, and supporting information do not count toward the 20k minimum required for the DCBB and will not be counted toward the 80% due for claims (but please include an outline of any missing scenes when you submit your draft; they can be inline, at the end, or linked in a separate document). How detailed does my outline need to be? We just need to know that you have a plan for your fic. Your outline can be a few bullet points listing the purpose of each remaining scene. What fic information do I need to submit for claims? When you submit your rough draft, you'll also be asked to supply the following information, which will be shown to artists exactly as you provide it: * Title - If you haven't named your fic yet, that's okay - this is for our internal use at this point * Pairings* - You need to disclose any and all ships - no surprises for artists * Rating* - '''General, Teen, Mature, or Explicit * '''Content warnings* - If your fic contains any of the major archive warnings for AO3, you must list them here, along with any other warnings you would like to disclose. This section is for CONTENT WARNINGS ONLY, not general tags you would use when posting to AO3 or as another summary of the entire fic. See more about our warnings policies. If while reviewing your fic we find content that needs a warning but didn't receive one, we'll add the warning on your behalf as a note from the mods. * Summary* - 200 words or fewer. Give an overview of the plot. Don't be afraid to spoil the details of your fic here. This will only be shown to artists, and they need to know what they're getting themselves into. That said, do not feel obligated to use all 200 words. Can you sum up your fic in one sentence? Awesome. You can also include general tags here, but they'll be considered part of your 200 words. * Visual elements* - 100 words or fewer. What are some interesting scenes/details an artist might like to draw for your fic? This is a great place to drop the setting (a battle-torn spaceship) and stand-out details (the characters wear military-style uniforms with helmets). You can also mention specific scenes, like the epic space battle you've been plotting for months. Careful, though. This is not a to-do list for your artist. They don't have to illustrate anything you write here. See this FAQ * Current wordcount * Estimated final wordcount* * A link to Google Docs or a file (DOC or RTF formats only) containing your rough draft Please double check your entries before you submit them. We won't fix any typos! * This information will be shown to artists during claims What should be in my claims summary? Your story summary for art claims doesn’t need to be the same summary you will use for posting. In fact, since the goal of the claims summary is to get someone to want to collaborate with you rather than read the story, people frequently find it helpful to write a specialized summary just for art claims. Given the 200-word limit for your summary in claims, you don’t want to be vague or coy about plot details; you may want to include things you would otherwise consider ‘spoilers’ in order to give the artists the best impression of your story as a whole. These summaries won’t be publicly accessible or connected to your story once claims are completed. Can I skip claims and just post my fic at the end of the challenge? Due to the size of the DCBB, we can't accommodate solo author posting for this challenge. How do claims work? Registered artists will have a week to review summary information for the available fics, and to select their top 10 fics from that list. Fics will be stripped of titles and assigned an ID number that will be used for claims. Summaries will be presented in either a document or a filterable gallery format (TBD). Registered artists enjoy a 24-hour priority claims window. The evening before claims, we will email all registered artists a link to a Google form, which will open the following morning at 10am EST. That form will have 12 fields and ask for the artist’s name, email address, and the 10 fics they are most interested in. You’ll enter the ID number for that fic. There will be one field for each fic choice, so you will have to copy/paste 12 times OR type quickly. You cannot make edits once you submit or submit another set of claims unless you are contacted by the mods. If there are fics remaining, at 10am EST on Sunday, claims will open to the public. Registered artists will have an opportunity to claim a second fic, if they like, and unregistered artists may claim something that is still available. If there are still fics remaining, we will open a 3rd round at 3pm EST on Sunday for artists who would like to claim an additional fic. Claims are first come, first served and may not be emailed to us in advance. We need the timestamp to determine the order received. If you are not able to be present for claims, you may ask someone to act as a proxy for you (meaning they fill out the form and submit it on your behalf). The mods cannot do this for you; please choose a friend you trust to be prompt and accurate. You will be assigned the first available fic in your list. If none of your 10 choices are available, we will email asking for your next 10. You will need to re-submit the form so it is timestamped. How will I know if I've been claimed? When claims are finalized, we will send an introductory email to each team that contains contact information for both partners. Will every author be matched with an artist? That's the goal! If you turn in a rough draft of your fic that meets the requirements, you will be paired with an artist. Every author is matched with one artist. In the past, many of our artists have graciously volunteered to make art for 2, 3, and even 4 different fics. We also have pinch-hit artists standing by in the event that any of our artists are unable to complete the challenge, for any reason.